NEW YORK: US stocks posted solid gains Friday after General Electric's earnings met expectations and as retail sales showed signs of improvement despite housing and mortgage market woes.
Corporate deal-making news also perked up the market as the world's second-largest software firm Oracle announced it was mounting a 6.68-billion-US-dollar takeover for rival business software group BEA Systems.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed up 77.96 points (0.56 per cent) at 14,093.08.
Technology stocks rallied as the Nasdaq leapt 33.48 points (1.21 per cent) to 2,805.68. Traders said the Nasdaq got a boost from news that Oracle was bidding for BEA Systems.
The broad-market Standard & Poor's 500 ended up 7.39 points (0.48 per cent) at 1,561.80.
"The major stock averages marched in step to the theme of a bull market and bounced back from yesterday's mild sell-off. Earnings and economic data got the credit for today's gains," said Al Goldman, a chief market strategist at AG Edwards.
Stocks gained ground in morning trading after GE reported a third-quarter profit of 5.54 billion US dollars, lifted in part by the sale of its plastics division to a Saudi Arabian group.
<----------- Are we still in the bull market?
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